By way of consideration of prior art, it is known that manufacturers have built houses in factories and delivered them, by tractor-trailer or otherwise, to building lots to be placed on prepared foundations. This sort of enterprise runs into great difficulty with respect to transportation, or with respect to provision of a house of preferred dimensions, because of the limitations of transport over public roads and highways. Width limitations must be considered and, in some cases, the road must be cleared overhead obstructions to permit transportation of a large load such as a prefabricated house. Overall, such a method is inefficient and it has had little success.
It has occurred to me that such difficulties may be circumvented by the adoption of a procedure or technique involving procuring of a large tract of land, perhaps one suitable for something like 1,000 dwelling houses. With this unobstructed area available, a factory is constructed on the tract and semi-finished roads suitable for transportation of houses are built in such pattern as will ultimately be suitable for access to the houses by the tenants. These roads, which are free from obstructions, serve to provide a path for transportation of the prefabricated houses to the homesites. The transportation is most convenient and efficient if the houses are first delivered to the most remote sites and then progressively to areas nearer and nearer to the factory until the project is completed.
Special forms and techniques of setting up the forms make it possible to pour an accurately leveled and precisely dimensioned foundation for each house. The structure of the house is such as to make for efficient and economical construction of the house and also for safe and easy transport of the houses from the factory to the lots. Each house is built on a perimeter frame which is precisely leveled and which is lowered onto a transporter for the house when it is completed. The transporter includes suitable running gear such as a set of wheels. After the house is completed and lowered onto the platform, it is rolled away from the factory to the lot by a tractor.
Each house includes a strong perimeter beam at the base of the walls which enclose the house. These beams may be connected to a crane by lifting rods removably fixed to the beams and extending through the top of the walls of the house. These rods are connected to a suitable rigid frame or harness which in turn is liftable by a crane to set the house in place. After the rods are removed, the roof of the house may be shingled or otherwise finished. The platform is towed back to the factory for reuse.
After the buildings have all been constructed and delivered, the roads are resurfaced with finish coat and the fittings of the factory are removed. This is preferably a large building, of the order of an acre in floor area, and may conveniently be used to house shops or a recreation building, for example.
The principal objects of my invention are to provide the economies of factory mass fabrication to home building, with such flexibility of operation as to make it possible to construct houses of sizes which are not suited for transportation over public roads. A further object of the invention is to provide an economical and feasible process for developing a large tract of land with individual dwelling houses. A further object of the invention is to provide a dwelling house structure which is particularly adapted for transportation to its foundation. A still further object is to provide a technique for accurate pouring of foundations for the houses.
The nature of my invention and its advantages will be more fully apparent from the succeeding detailed description of a preferred mode of putting the invention into practice and the accompanying drawings thereof.